Tropical Rainforests/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby is wearing a catcher's mitt indoors, and watching a rainstorm through the window. MOBY: Beep. Tim is wearing a baseball cap and holding a bat and baseball. TIM: Yeah, I know. Oh, maybe it'll clear up. Meanwhile, let's see if we can answer this question. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what is the importance of the rainforest? From, R. Petrachenko. TIM: I know that any place with the word rain in it doesn't sound very appealing right now, but rainforests are really important places. They only cover about seven percent of the earth's surface, but they contain more than fifty percent of all the plant and animal species on the planet. Rainforests are sometimes known as the lungs of the planet, because the plant life there provides a great deal of our oxygen while absorbing our carbon dioxide. An animation shows a dense rainforest. Arrows illustrate how the trees give off oxygen, or "O2," and absorb carbon dioxide, or "CO2." TIM: Let's take a look at life in the rainforest. Tim and Moby are in a rainforest. Moby swings from the trees on a vine. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Tropical rainforests lie in the tropics, where it's warm and wet all year round. The temperatures there never fall below twenty-five degrees Celsius. A world map shows tropical areas with rainforests. A thermometer shows a temperature reading of twenty-five degrees Celsius. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Mmm, I don't think you'd like living here. MOBY: Beep? TIM: It may be warm, but anywhere from two to nine meters of rain can fall in a tropical rainforest in one year. You'd rust. MOBY: Beep. TIM: A rainforest can be thought of in three layers. The canopy is the leafy green top of the forest where all kinds of vines and plants grow. An image shows a rainforest, with the canopy highlighted. TIM: This is where you'd find the majority of living things. Everything from monkeys to flowers can be found there, along with many other species you never heard of. An animation shows a sloth slowly climbing a tree branch and a toucan sitting on another tree branch. TIM: The understory is made up of shorter trees, bushes, and ferns, and the animals that live there. An image shows the rainforest, with the understory highlighted. TIM: On the forest floor, bacteria and fungi break down dead leaves to release nutrients that are quickly sucked up by the trees and plants. An image shows wild mushrooms and dead leaves on the forest floor. TIM: Since most of the nutrients from the ground get used up in the canopy, rainforest soil is very poor, and not good for things like farming. But poor soil doesn't stop the forest floor from developing some exciting life of its own. An animation shows a scorpion crawling across the ground. TIM: The dead plant matter supports all kinds of bugs and animals. An animation shows a monkey, lemur, and snake. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, that's a lot of stuff in a small area; but the thing is, rainforests are disappearing before our eyes. Industries like logging, mining, farming, and grazing animals, all threaten the rainforests and their valuable resources, including the plants we use to make chocolate and coffee. Images illustrate the four industries Tim describes. Large images of a bar of chocolate and a cup of coffee appear. TIM: More importantly, many medicines can be made from plants found in rainforests. There might even be a cure for cancer in there somewhere. Images show different forms of medicines: pills, prescription bottles, syrup, ointment, liquid drops, and a nose spray. TIM: Scientists estimate that one rainforest species becomes extinct every fifteen minutes. An animation shows two birds disappearing from a deforested rainforest. TIM: Hopefully, someday people will wise up and realize they can't go beating up the earth and still expect it to support them. Oh well. MOBY: Beep. i>Tim looks through his window at the falling rain. TIM: I, I don't think that's a very good idea. MOBY: Beep. A ball breaks the window. TIM'S DAD: Tim, you boys all right up there? TIM: Oh, oh yeah we're fine, Dad. Everything's fine. How are you? Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts